Walk 50 -- Kent Oil Refinery to Grain

Ages: Colin was 60 years and 43 days. Rosemary was 57 years and 185 days.
Weather: A wet start as we packed up camp, but it had turned fine by the time we started the walk. There was a pleasant breeze which lifted our spirits no end!
Location: Kent Oil Refinery to Grain.
Distance: 5 miles.
Total distance: 312½ miles.
Terrain: Disused road, grassy banks and concrete proms.
Tide: Right out.
Rivers to cross: None.
Ferries: None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates: None.
Pubs: None.
‘English Heritage’ properties: None.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: None.
How we got there and back: We packed up our camp (located between a motorway and an airport – but with delightful toilets!) and drove to Grain where we parked in the car park by the beach again. It was less than a mile from where we left the ‘official’ route yesterday, so we didn’t think it worth while unlocking the bikes and dismantling the bike rack. We left all in situ and walked.
At the end, we had a couple of cups of tea with sticky cakes we had bought earlier, then drove home to Bognor.

Yesterday, when we had both been feeling very low, Colin had complained about walking back to the true start of today’s walk and said he was going to take a ‘quicker route’ through the village. I had said, “Go on, then, but I am going to walk back to the road which leads down to Grain Power Station so that all the Walks we have done so far link up! Today, we both felt a hundred times better, and he didn’t mention his ‘quicker route’ at all. He just followed me to the correct starting point – which wasn’t very exciting but at least we can still boast we have walked ‘every inch of the way’ from Bognor Regis'.
We skirted Grain Power station which was very quiet, and we realised it was no longer in use. We wondered if that was permanent – it all looked rather dead. (Several weeks later, we heard a News item which said that people were not using as much electricity as had been anticipated. As a result, two power stations in England were being closed down – one of these was Grain Power Station.) I took a photo of a beautiful wild rose bush in full flower, the scent emanating from it was rather wonderful too. We walked the length of a disused road behind the power station, then along the raised river bank until our way was barred by barbed wire and KEEP OUT notices. This was the nether end of the oil refinery / power station complex that we had walked miles to get round.
We sat on the sea wall, overlooking a jetty which was just inside the forbidden territory. Across the river, a mere mile away, lay Sheerness Docks. We have walked nigh on fifty miles to cross that mile of water, no wonder we felt jaded! It was quite a busy port on this sunny afternoon. We watched two ships leave, one was turned right round within its own length by two tugs – it was quite an impressive operation. We wondered how many more new cars those ships had delivered to fill our crowded roads.
So far we had met no one. We started walking back along the sea wall, which was topped with short grass and so was quite pleasant, when we met a couple walking their dog. Fine – but about a hundred yards further on we narrowly missed treading in a huge dog s**t in the middle of the path! It had not been there earlier, why can’t dog owners be more responsible about clearing up their pet’s mess? We passed the water outlet to the power station and it was dry. It looked as if it had been like that for some time.
The tide was right out so when we passed Grain Tower, which is geographically in the middle of the Medway entrance, we could see that the structure was actually on our side of the channel. It looks like a fort of Napoléonic vintage, but has an extension in Second World War style. Telephone wires go out there at ground level protected by a brick causeway, so at very low tide it is possible to walk the half mile to the tower. In fact, a group of people had done that, we could see them milling about under the building. If we hadn’t been so tired and pushed for time, we might have considered it ourselves; but I looked at the green slime in patches on the causeway, and—remembering Brighton Marina—declared it an unsafe path! (In fact, my right shoulder has been aching and stiffening up in recent weeks after two and a half years of complete freedom of movement – I shall have to get it looked at again if it keeps on like this.)
Grain is a strange little village, squashed as it is between an oil refinery and an active Army range! Even so, they have tried to make a little seaside resort out of it and interest the local schoolchildren in the wildlife there. We passed a group of girls, aged about ten, who had been playing on the beach and were covered in sandy mud. They were at the arguing stage, and went off home in high dudgeon – I wonder what their mothers thought of the mess they had got themselves into!
We could clearly see the north coast of Sheppey from Grain Beach, and we were working out where we had walked and where our campsite (with the dreadful toilets) was situated. We couldn’t think of any reason why we should ever visit the Isle of Sheppey again in our lives! We could also see the Essex coast, and just about make out Southend Pier, though it was difficult because it was end-on to us.
We passed a number of other people sitting on the concrete steps enjoying the afternoon sun, and continued along an overgrown path which became more and more uneven because it leads nowhere. We passed some sand quarry workings, then we came to a barbed wire barrier with a big red notice –

DANGER
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE RANGE
NO ADMITTANCE

That ended Walk no.50, we returned the couple of hundred yards to Grain Beach car park and that is where we will pick up Walk no.51 next time. We both admitted that we had rather enjoyed today’s hike, and were glad that we hadn’t given in to our feelings yesterday. We had saved a sticky cake each to treat ourselves along with a couple of cups of tea from our flasks. Then we had a smooth drive home to Bognor, taking a little over two hours for the journey.

Our only problem now is – what are we going to do about that wretched Army range? It is eight miles to walk round it legally – mostly on busy roads and through that dreadful oil refinery again – all for the sake of a single mile through private land!

Walk 49 -- Hoo St Werburgh to Kent Oil Refinery

Ages: Colin was 60 years and 42 days. Rosemary was 57 years and 184 days.
Weather: Very hot and humid – we got quite dehydrated.
Location: Hoo St Werburgh to Kent Oil Refinery – not the most exciting of places!
Distance: 10 miles.
Total distance: 307½ miles.
Terrain: Mostly grassy river banks, one or two country lanes, a dreadful bridle path that was almost impassable because of armpit-high thistles, stinging nettles and brambles, and finally a deadly section of busy road through the oil refinery!
Tide: Coming in, then going out again.
Rivers to cross: None.
Ferries: None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates: None.
Pubs: None.
‘English Heritage’ properties: None.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: None.
How we got there and back: We drove – with bikes on the back of the car – from our campsite to Grain where we parked in the car park by the beach. We donned our walking boots, locked the bike rack inside the car, then cycled back to Hoo St Werburgh where we bought our lunch in the village shop. We cycled on down to the marina and chained the bikes to a post at the spot where we cut inland across the fields yesterday.
At the end, we got so hot, tired, dehydrated and depressed that we made the decision to cut short the 15 mile hike we had planned for today. As we approached Grain village, we walked straight on back to our car. We downed several cups of tea, then returned to our campsite making a short detour to pick up the bikes on the way.

We had planned a long hike today, fifteen miles! We wanted so much to reach Gravesend this week, then we will not have to return to Kent. We are really fed up with this county, after all we have walked nearly three quarters of the way round it! We made a pretty good start to the day, but it was quite a distance to drive out to Grain at the end of the Hoo Peninsula and it took us a long time to cycle the eight miles back to Hoo St Werburgh. After we had bought our lunch in the local shop and cycled down to the marina, we were both well and truly knackered!
We walked for about half a mile along the grassy raised river bank, looking back at the restored Thames Barges in Hoo Marina and out to ships and birds in the channel and a couple of ancient forts on mudbanks. Then we came to a ‘pill-box’ – Second World War style – the roof of which was at exactly the right height to make a comfy seat. So we made use of it and sat down to have our lunch with gloomy thoughts that we still had 14½ miles of power stations, an oil refinery and an Army range to go!
It was not long before our way was barred by the first power station and we had to turn inland. The footpath across the fields was not very clear, but we managed to navigate our way successfully – almost back on ourselves – to reach some lanes which would take us round the complex. As soon as we left the river bank, we lost the tiny breeze which had been keeping us sane and we became very hot and bothered walking along. The lanes led past the entrance to the power station where there were children playing outside a ‘Field Centre’, but we couldn’t think of anything that could possibly be of interest for young children to study in such an area.
We avoided the heavy traffic in and out of an industrial estate, and tried to find the bridlepath which was marked on our map. Part way into the factory complex, we realised that we were parallel to the path we wanted but that it was on the other side of a high fence and a host of brambles! In a foul mood, we retraced our steps about a quarter of a mile. I had a corn on my toe which had become very painful, so I sat on a post, removed my boot and put on another cornpad adding to the one already there. Then I took some painkillers – and cursed my wretched feet! Colin had found the entrance to the bridlepath, it was a disgrace! There was no signpost, and it was armpit deep in brambles, thistles and stinging nettles. At times we wondered if we would be able to continue, it was so badly overgrown! We battled our way to the railway and found that the gates and notices for the path crossing the line were still in place. However, just before the first gate and hidden by dense undergrowth was a puddle of thick glutinous mud. I stepped straight into it, up to my ankle. My right boot was a mess, I was not pleased!
After the crossing, the going was easier and we soon emerged on to a proper lane. This we followed along two sides of a square. There was a track leading back to the river bank which was marked on my internet map but not on the OS map, and we were hoping we would be able to use it to get us back across the railway. We could, so that saved us a bit of distance. We had to climb over one of the farm gates at the railway because it was not a public right of way, but the other was not locked. We had regained the waterside and our breeze! We back-tracked a few yards to the nether boundary of the power station we had successfully skirted, and celebrated by sitting on the grassy bank to eat another snack.
From there we continued eastwards with mud to our right and the railway line to the left. We passed a small wharf where there were several boats and a few people about. We had met hardly anybody up until then – nobody else is as crazy as us. (We told one chap we were walking to Scotland, he must have thought we were really round the bend!) Next we passed a micro-light airfield squashed between the river bank and the railway. We watched a small plane take off from the grassy airstrip and later on come in to land – dangerously close to overhead power lines! We thought it a very unsafe place for this kind of activity, a slight buffeting of the wind and sizzle! – all you have left is a plume of smoke! However, it didn’t happen today because there was no wind, it was just hot!
On and on we trudged, ever nearer to the Kent Oil Refinery with its line of cranes looking like giant giraffes facing the sea! We sat down on the bank and contemplated this scene – not very pretty. We were both hot, tired, dehydrated and fed up. Neither of us were enjoying ourselves and neither of us relished the thought of the long deadly walk through the oil refinery ahead of us. Colin was ready to throw in the towel now and give up the ‘Round-Britain-Walk’ altogether. I was tempted to agree, but I didn’t want to give in to the moment and then regret it later. We were so depressed we didn't realise, until a long time later, that we had passed the three hundred mile point of our trek.
We discussed the fact that part of our problem this week was that we were emotionally drained. It was a mere seven days since we had to put our nineteen-year-old cat, Bolly, down and five days since Colin was told he has prostate cancer. We haven’t had time to mourn Bolly or come to terms with the cancer, and we have decided to tell no one about the cancer until after Paul’s wedding in five weeks time because we don’t want to put a damper on the jollifications – that, in itself, is a strain. Every day, despite good intentions, we have made late starts and the walks have been longer than we have anticipated. We didn’t know how we were going to get past the Army range on the other side of Grain – it is miles to walk round and a local man had told us this morning that he and his family ‘often trespass on there on days when they are not firing’, but we could hear them exploding away even as we discussed it! We were too exhausted to get to Gravesend this week, so we came to a compromise.
We decided to walk straight through the oil refinery and on to our car parked in Grain today, missing out the last five miles of the planned walk. Tomorrow we will pack up our camp (two days earlier than planned), do the five miles to the Army range and then go home. When we are feeling less tired and not so uptight we will review the situation.
Having made these decisions, we both immediately felt better about the Walk. We got up and stomped along the few yards to the road where the public footpath stopped. Once on the road we marched! Two miles of road through the refinery – deadly! We didn’t say a word to each other, in fact we didn’t even walk together, we just marched one in front of the other with a grim determination to get it over as quickly as possible. We reached the outskirts of the village of Grain.

That ended Walk no.49, we shall pick up Walk no.50 next time on the corner where the road leads down to Grain Power Station. We walked on into the village, called at the shop and then continued to the car park where we had left the car this morning. After several cups of tea from our flasks, we both felt a lot better about everything. On the way back to the campsite we only had to make a short detour to pick up our bikes from Hoo Marina, but even so – we ended up cooking in the dark yet again!

Walk 48 -- Rochester to Hoo St Werburgh

Ages: Colin was 60 years and 41 days. Rosemary was 57 years and 183 days.
Weather: Very hot and sunny. (Most uncomfortable for walking!)
Location: Rochester to Hoo St Werburgh.
Distance: 5 miles.
Total distance: 297½ miles.
Terrain: Gravel and paved paths, shingle beach and finally an unkempt footpath behind and through boatyards with rather too many stinging nettles!
Tide: Going out.
Rivers to cross: No.12, the Medway at Rochester.
Ferries: None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates: No.44 just before we descended the hill at Frindsbury. No.45 (a high one, this, difficult to get a kiss over the top!) behind some army land at the bottom near the Medway Tunnel.
Pubs: The ‘Kings Arms’ where Colin drank ‘It is Now’ and I had a shandy. The ‘Tudor Rose’ where we enjoyed ‘Rumpus’ and ‘Golden Braid’. Both pubs were in Upnor about fifty yards from each other!
‘English Heritage’ properties: We passed three which we had looked at the day before along with a Cathedral.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: None.
How we got there and back: We drove – with bikes on the back of the car – from our campsite to Hoo St Werburgh where we parked in the village car park. We donned our walking boots, locked the bike rack inside the car, then cycled back to Rochester – zapping some arrogant teenage schoolboys and a group of ‘New-Age Travellers’ who were blocking the official cycle lanes in different places in very anti-social ways! We chained the bikes to a post in the car park by the railway.
At the end, we walked across a couple of fields to our car. After a cup of tea, we drove back to our campsite, picking up our bikes in Rochester on the way.

After our walk round St Mary’s Island this morning, we were hot, tired and very thirsty! We drove straight to Upnor where there are two ‘real ale’ pubs in the same tiny street. There we sat in the garden and had lunch, by which time it was already the middle of the afternoon – but we felt a lot better, and carried on setting up the real walk for today. By the time we had achieved this, it was a quarter to five! Even worse than yesterday!

We started by having a quick look at the river from a little private garden in front of some new properties (Private! Residents only!) but realised we would have to go back to the road on the other side of the car park in order to get under the railway. We made a decision here to add another ‘rule’ to our trek – we do not have to walk through an industrial estate if it is quicker to bypass it! There is nothing more soul-destroying than to hike past lots of factories when we are supposed to be enjoying ourselves, and we had enough of them when we were in Sittingbourne. So, after we had passed Rochester Station we did not attempt to cross back under the railway to get nearer to the river because it was all dead-end industrial stuff and really boring. We made straight for the double road bridge and crossed the Medway at last!
We turned immediately right under the railway to walk back along the other side of the river, and passed through some very pleasant gardens which included an imaginative children’s playground – how I would have loved this modern play equipment fifty years ago when I was seven! (Although we did have a lot of fun on those ‘umbrella’ roundabouts which are now deemed too dangerous.)
We then had to walk up a puddly track passing a dubious looking car repair shop which had one car on the roof! We don’t know how they got it up there – or why. We crossed a road, and did not turn right into Frindsbury Industrial Estate. This is really why we had made our new rule today – the whole peninsula is factories, and on our way down by bike we had got lost in there amongst the warehouses and were blasted by lorries zooming hither and thither with all the attendant noise, dust and pollution. Not fun!
If we had managed to find our way through taking ‘the nearest safe path to the coast’, we would have ended up at exactly the same roundabout but a lot later, crosser and tireder! Instead, we took a footpath which went quite steeply uphill and along the top of chalk cliffs (where we found a big black beetle) giving us a lovely view back across Rochester – and of the industrial estate stretching out before our eyes! Then we descended through a kissing gate into a pleasant green meadow, and down to the busy roundabout where cars were whizzing towards the Medway Tunnel and lorries were accelerating out of the industrial estate.
After crossing the dual carriageway with the aid of traffic lights, we had to negotiate a ‘New-Age Travellers’ camp! About a dozen caravans, even more vans and cars, and all their attendant paraphernalia / children / dogs / chickens / ironmongery were parked all over the footpath / bridleway / cycletrack. I was a little nervous because earlier, when we came cycling down that way, we had had difficulty getting round all of this stuff, particularly the open windows of the caravans which stuck out horizontally into our path at about eye level. After narrowly avoiding having my eye gouged out because I wobbled violently to miss a dog and didn’t see the window until it was almost too late, I had yelled at a young chap, “You shouldn’t be here, this is a public right of way, you know!” – to which he daintily replied, “Yeah! And we’re staying here forever, like shit!” By that time we were well down the path and away, but now we had to walk back through them! I pulled my ‘Flowerpot-Man’ sun hat over my eyes and trudged through purposefully looking into the middle distance – no one seemed to associate me with the mad cyclist of a couple of hours ago! (Much later that same evening, we drove past there to the roundabout and every single one of them had gone, just leaving their rubbish behind.)
Further on there was a very high kissing gate (difficult to purse our lips over!) We were still on the footpath / bridleway / cycletrack, but passing an Army base and cyclists were asked to dismount. Why? We had ignored this request/order on our way down because we couldn’t see any reason for not cycling along a cycletrack especially designated for cyclists! On reaching the road which leads into the Army base, we turned on to a footpath which led down to the beach. Very shortly we were at Upnor Castle. It was closed, of course, because we were well into the evening, so we sat on a bench outside the entrance looking across the river at St Mary’s Island and trying to pick out landmarks we had seen earlier in the day. We were at the end of Upnor High street, a cobbled road boasting two ‘real ale’ pubs! We went to the one we didn’t visit for lunch earlier, and enjoyed our drinks in their pleasant back garden.
From there we had to take to the road for a bit because there was yet another Army base (behind a high wall) enjoying river frontage – they take up all the best sites! We regained the beach at Lower Upnor which seemed to be a little upmarket yachting centre, but their pub is not in the ‘Good Beer Guide’ and so is beneath contempt as far as Colin is concerned!
Noses in the air, we marched past and the path continued along the beach, occasionally just below high water mark which was a little disconcerting, and slippery! Trees lined the shore, and we sat on a piece of wood to eat our bars of chocolate which had melted in our bags – goooey!! Faces and fingers coated in this sticky confection, like small children we continued along the shingle which was fairly hard-packed so not too difficult. We could see ancient and not-so-ancient forts out in the river on muddy islands, and passed a Second World War ‘pill-box’ which had slipped down the beach and was teetering at an angle. Other brickwork we passed, we didn’t know what it was and quite frankly I was so tired by then I didn’t care!

We came eventually to Hoo Marina, which is more like an industrial complex because they restore boats there rather than just sail them. The path wended its way through the sheds and warehouses, but it was not easy to see where it went and it was quite overgrown in places. We were too tired to negotiate nettles and brambles with good temper! Wish I’d brought my sticks!

We weren’t sure which road to take inland, and a man with two dogs asked us if we needed directions because he saw us looking at the map. Colin got chatting to him about the Thames Barges we could see behind the fence, and he told us that the one under wraps had featured in a recent Channel Four TV programme called ‘The Salvage Squad’. He was restoring an old wooden lightship – he said it was hard work but very rewarding, and it should be worth a quarter of a million pounds when he has finished it! Some investment!We came to the end of the marina, and turned inland.

That ended Walk no.47, we shall pick up Walk no.48 next time at the eastern end of Hoo Marina. We walked inland across a couple of fields to Hoo St Werburgh where our car was parked. After a quick cup of tea from our flasks, we drove to Rochester to pick up our bikes and then on to our campsite – without getting lost today! However, it was so late that we cooked and ate by the light of our lamp for the second evening in succession.

Walk 47 -- Rochester, Strood and Upnor

Ages: Colin was 60 years and 40 days. Rosemary was 57 years and 182 days.
Weather: Thunder storms with torrential rain! Then suddenly it turned very hot and sunny.
Location: Rochester, Strood and Upnor.
Distance: Nil.
Total distance: 297½ miles.
Terrain: Climbing up, in and around ancient buildings.
Tide: Going out.
Rivers to cross: None.
Ferries: None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates: None.
Pubs: None.
‘English Heritage’ properties: No. 13, Rochester Castle. No.14, Temple Manor in Strood. No.15, Upnor Castle. We also looked at Rochester Cathedral.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: None.
How we got there and back: We drove from our campsite to Rochester, Strood and Upnor.
At the end of the day we drove back to our campsite.

Rochester Castle.

The tall square tower of the ruined Rochester Castle dominates the River Medway at its first bridging point. It was built by the Normans on the old Roman city wall, and was an important stronghold for various bishops. We listened to a ‘tape-tour’ which told us of the battles fought there – it was interesting at the time, but went on a bit and was instantly forgettable! The view from the top was magnificent and well worth the climb, though my medieval knees didn’t take kindly to the medieval stairs as we came down!

Rochester Cathedral.

This magnificent church was first built by the Normans in the 11^th century, though it is believed a place of Christian worship has stood on the site since the 7^th century.
The potted history reads as follows:
604 Augustine sends Justus to found the cathedral
1077 Lanfranc consecrates Gundulf as Bishop 1080 Gundulf begins new cathedral and establishes a Benedictine Priory
1130 Norman cathedral complete
1137 & 1179 The great fires
1180 Building of Gothic cathedral begins
1227 New quire consecrated
1343 Central tower and spire raised
1423 Monks expel the townsfolk from cathedral and build a separate church next door
1535 Bishop Fisher is beheaded by Henry VIII
1540 Dissolution and refounding
1561 Bishop Ridley is burned at the stake
1642 Cathedral is damaged by Cromwell’s soldiers
1800s Years of restoration
1904 New spire completed
1986 Cleaning and conservation programme begins

It certainly is a fantastic structure. It always amazes us when we look round our ancient cathedrals, that such gigantic and beautiful buildings were constructed with primitive tools and without the benefit of modern technology.

Temple Manor.

We had great difficulty finding this 13^th century manor house because it is in the middle of an industrial estate – we had actually driven past it twice! When we did finally locate it, we found it only opens at weekends and we had planned to go home by then. We couldn’t even see it properly from the road, so Colin climbed over the gate to take a photograph of it.

Upnor Castle.

Constructed in the 16^th century, this is not really a castle but a gun fort built to protect Queen Elizabeth I’s warships in the River Medway. It didn’t do this very well on some date I can’t remember (in the 17^th century, I think) when the Dutch came roaring up the river and took them all by surprise. Most of the British Navy ships were burnt or sunk, and there were simply not enough men or guns at Upnor Castle to stop them. It was one of England’s most shaming defeats. The Dutch could have just walked right in and taken over, but they didn’t. Having made their point, they went home. After that, Upnor Castle was used more as a gunpowder store than a fort having proved its uselessness in the latter function!

We followed a ‘tape-tour’ which was very good and brought it all alive – except where it tried to take us through a locked door! There was also an excellent model with commentary about the Battle of the Medway, and life-size dummies dressed in period costume of men storing the gunpowder.

We enjoyed our trip round, we were the only people there! From the roof we watched little speed boats zooming up and down the river at great speed. They were being driven by Army personnel from the base next door. Then a paddle steamer packed with tourists went past, a beautiful sight! We had good views of St Mary’s Island, and were picking out places where we had walked yesterday.

Walk 46 -- Horrid Hill to Rochester

Ages: Colin was 60 years and 39 days. Rosemary was 57 years and 181 days.
Weather: Clouds clearing, and it turned very warm.
Location: Horrid Hill to Rochester.
Distance: 9½ miles.
Total distance: 292½ miles.
Terrain: Gravel and paved paths.
Tide: Going out.
Rivers to cross: None.
Ferries: None.
Piers: No.11 at Chatham, a short fishing pier.
Kissing gates: None.
Pubs: None.
‘English Heritage’ properties: None.
Ferris wheels: None.
Diversions: No.18 at Finsborough Ness where the footpath was temporarily closed due to building works.
How we got there and back: We drove – with bikes on the back of the car – from Bognor to Rochester where we parked in a car park by the railway. We donned our walking boots, locked the bike rack inside the car, then cycled to Horrid Hill where we chained the bikes to a proper bike rack in the Riverside Country Park.
At the end, we drove back quickly to the Country Park to collect our bikes before they locked the gates for the night! Then we drove to a campsite near Rochester Airport where we pitched our tent – dreadful location but delightful toilets!

(Due to extenuating circumstances, we decided to miss out St Mary’s Island and do it the next day. So, next morning, we parked near the central bridge leading across to the island and did a circular walk round its perimeter.)

This has not been a good week for us. Four days before this walk, we had our eldest cat, Bolly (Arabella), put down. She was nineteen years old and we have had her since she was a kitten. It’s a long time! We never expected her to live nearly this long, and didn’t think we would be so upset when the inevitable happened – but we were. We thought she had an abscess in her mouth, but the vet said it was a tumour so there was no other course of action except to put her out of her misery.
Two days before this walk, Colin got the result of a biopsy he had for prostate cancer, and it was positive! He is very pragmatic about it, but I had been so sure that it would prove negative that I was really knocked for six! Prostate cancer is extremely slow-growing, and this has been caught very early. The recommended treatment is to have the prostate gland removed – which is a major but fairly common operation – and this is what Colin has decided to have done provided it hasn’t already spread. Further tests will find out if this has happened, but I can’t seem to get my mind round it at the moment. I slept very badly ever since he came home so calmly and told me. We have decided to say nothing about it to anyone until after Paul’s wedding in five weeks time. This morning I woke up feeling sick and shivery although I wasn’t cold. I can’t think straight and nothing makes sense – I believe I am in a state of shock. In the end, we decided to stick to our plans because if we stay at home I will only mope and feel worse. Colin, as always, is keeping very quiet about how he feels, though he did come home from the vet’s (after insisting on holding Bolly while she had her final injection) and burst into tears! I have never known him show his emotion like that before, not even when his parents died. We are both in a very emotional state.
Added to that, today is the eighth anniversary of Dad’s death. His passing was the end of an era – life is very different now from the world he knew. I still can’t get used to the fact that I now belong to the ‘senior generation’, that my four children are well into adulthood and that my eldest grandchild is about to become a teenager! Because of all this, we left home much later than planned, then there were long hold-ups on the motorway adding at least an hour to our journey. By the time we had set up the walk with the car in Rochester and the bikes at the Riverside Country Park, it was quarter past four!

There were a lot of people enjoying the afternoon sun, being as it was a Sunday. The tide was further in than it was when we were there last time, but nowhere near flowing over the little causeway to Horrid Hill. We find it difficult to believe that Horrid Hill is ever cut off, and we noted that the dire notices warning of such an eventuality had disappeared from the notice-board.
We diverted slightly to look at a large pond which had been dug there with boardwalks across it so we could see everything whilst keeping it wild. It was very well done – lots of hiding places for the ducks and we watched a moorhen collect food to take back to her young which we could just see in a nest over the other side.
We followed a pleasant walk along the riverside, it has been set out very well for everyone’s enjoyment. We walked round a grassy outcrop, but ended up back where we started because there was one industrial complex on the waterside which we had to walk behind. Then the path regained the river where there were several concrete barges. We couldn’t think of any reason for anyone to build a barge out of concrete, unless they were something to do with the mulberry harbours during the War. We passed very close to the front windows of some new houses, then it all opened out into a park called ‘The Strand’, after which there was a marina which we weren’t allowed in so we had to retreat to the road. The wall surrounding the marina had a number of wall paintings depicting sea themes, which was rather fun!

We hiked along a dull bit of road which was quite busy – we even walked across a petrol station forecourt – and turned right into a road leading to ‘Gillingham Piers’. They turned out to be solid stone ‘piers’ where there were a few boys fishing, and we had to retrace our steps to the road.
We continued along a newer section of the dual carriageway past Chatham Dockyard which is undergoing a five year ‘redevelopment plan’ and looked a bit like a demolition site with a fancy entrance! We continued to the elevated roundabout above the entrance to the Medway Tunnel. This road tunnel under the River Medway was opened in 1996 by the Princess Royal to relieve traffic congestion in Rochester. No pedestrians allowed, so we were unable to use it as a shortcut!
On our ‘Explorer’ 1:25000 map, St Mary’s Island is marked as mostly blank with no public footpaths. When planning this walk, I had been confident that it was all part of Chatham Dockyard and therefore inaccessible. How out of date that map is, though I only bought it a few months ago! The internet Ordnance Survey map, which I accessed only yesterday, wasn’t much better. The Navy pulled out of Chatham in 1984, and they have been wondering what to do with this ‘brownfield’ site ever since. With the demand from the Government to build millions more houses in the South of England and with people up in arms about ‘greenfield’ sites disappearing under concrete, St Mary’s Island is a prime site for development. It is half-built – pukka three and four storey houses and apartments, many already occupied, and a three mile footpath all round the edge!
It was past 6 o’clock by then, and our car was parked two miles further on not including a stomp round the perimeter of St Mary’s Island. Then we would have to pick up our bikes, then find a campsite, then pitch a tent and cook a meal! Even though it doesn’t get dark until nearly 10 o’clock at this time of year, there was no way we could achieve that with an unexpected three extra miles thrown in! We had to make a decision – and that was to leave out St Mary’s Island until tomorrow. We made straight for the ‘Historic Dockyard’ which was the quickest way back to the car!(The next few paragraphs are about our circumnavigation of St Mary’s Island which we did on the morning of the 17^th June in baking hot sunshine)

We turned right at the next little roundabout beyond the Medway Tunnel and walked behind some of the first new houses to be built in this development, which looked as if their gardens were already fairly mature. Our way was barred by a large renovated building which was ‘to let’, so we walked down the side of it and discovered the ground floor was being used as a car park.
We walked in front of it beside the dock (no swimming!) as far as we could, then back along to the bridge. There we saw some big fish in the water which looked like trout, and a lot of jellyfish at various levels all pumping away. No wonder swimming was not allowed! They are fascinating creatures to watch, they looked as if they are all doing a dance!
On our internet map, ‘Ocelet Submarine’ was marked at this point and on our ‘Explorer’ map, ‘HMS Ocelot’ was marked – but there was only a concrete platform and no sign of any submarine. We can only conclude that the ‘powers that be’ have changed their minds as to where to keep it and didn’t tell the mapmakers, some of whom can’t spell anyway!
We crossed the bridge and read a plaque telling us that this development was opened by John Major in 1995. The trout had followed us! And there were even more jellyfish this side.
We walked along a boardwalk in front of the houses as far as we could, then discovered that there was a footpath leading up alongside them to take us to Finsborough Ness. We walked through a nice new grassy children’s playground and a fenced off dog-walking area – it was all very nicely done. But the end of this footpath was closed – due to the next phase of building works – blocking our way completely. We got lost in the new housing estate trying to get round, and were all hot and bothered. We were really fed up! After several false leads, Colin discovered that if we went up the side of an unoccupied apartment block and leapt over the wall at the back, we would be on the perimeter path again which was nicely paved. This we did (Colin helped me with the leaping bit!) and then we had to walk back to get to Finsborough Ness. We had walked half a mile to get round twenty yards of blocked path!
There was a rather good modern sculpture there of some sailors, and we stopped to admire the view across the river which was quite pleasant. We needed a breather, it was so hot! We then continued the ‘correct’ way round the perimeter path of St Mary’s Island with the river on our right.
The rest of the path was complete, and every so often there was a plaque describing the gruesome history of this place. St Mary’s Island used to be a muddy swamp, and in Napoleonic times several convict ships were moored off there. The conditions on board were inhuman, to say the least. The prisoners were shackled by their hands and feet, and each man was allocated a space measuring just six feet by twenty inches! They lay in their own excrement, and the ships were full of rats and cockroaches. The smell was so bad, the hatches were battened down so it didn’t upset people living in the vicinity, and it was said that ‘a candle refused to burn’ down there! They were given uncooked bread to eat which was rock hard, and their biscuits were green with mould. If they sent back any of the food because it was inedible – and that included fish they were given twice a week – then it was put in store and dished out the following week to save money! They were usually beaten senseless if they complained.
By the middle of the 19^th century, the convicts were housed in a prison building on shore, what is now part of the University of Greenwich! There, conditions were marginally better. The men were used as forced labour to build Chatham Docks for the Navy between 1861 and 1875. In 1897, Chatham Prison closed and the convicts sent to Dartmoor. The Navy pulled out of Chatham in 1984, and whatever was on St Mary’s Island has since been razed to the ground to make way for an enormous housing development which is still being built.As we rounded the end of St Mary’s Island we had a grand view of Upnor Castle on the opposite bank of the river. We then came to the modern lock gates which we crossed over using a little lifting bridge which reminded us of a similar bridge we have seen in Amsterdam, and also on the Llangollen Canal in Shropshire. The mechanism of the lock gates was being tested, and we watched as they were opened and closed several times.
We continued walking as near to the river bank as we were allowed, until we came to the little roundabout where we had short-cutted the walk last night.

(Now we return to the evening of the 16^th June, when we had been directed to a little roundabout at the entrance to the ‘Historic Dockyard’ by a passing cyclist.)
We could only walk about a hundred yards into the ‘Historic Dockyard’ before we found our way blocked by a locked gate. We had passed several buildings housing steam engines etc which had been closed up for the night, and one impressive looking steam engine (probably a replica of ‘The Rocket’ or something) outside a building. Our cyclist friend had told us that it was possible to walk through – you usually have to pay during the day, but it should be free in the evening. So we retreated a few yards, walked through a car park and tried along a different road.
Suddenly we were stopped by a night-watchman with blue glasses and very little brain! He couldn’t get his mind round the fact that we had walked in one end and wanted to walk out the other. However the dockyard is open to the public, and eventually we persuaded him to direct us to the route through. We passed a large number of redundant old buildings which are probably all ‘listed’ so they can only house museums now, past a ship’s figurehead (a bit like Portsmouth Dockyard) and we walked out through a very impressive gateway with a big coat of arms above the arch.
A bit further down the road, we turned down some steps and walked along a concrete quay – earlier we had cycled along there and Colin had heaved the bikes up the steps because we hadn’t seen the NO CYCLING notices! We came to a wooden pier which we walked along, and asked some boys who were fishing if they had had any luck. They told us enthusiastically of all they had caught, but they had either thrown it back or were telling ‘porkies’ because there was no sign of any of it! We can never understand the attraction of fishing – seems to us to be such a boring activity. There was a nice view of the sun setting over Rochester Castle and Cathedral. We walked along the water’s edge as far as we could, but for the last few yards we had to come inland to the
road and walk along by the shops to reach the car park by the railway where our car was waiting for us.

That ended Walk no.46, we shall pick up Walk no.47 next time at the car park behind the railway in Rochester. We had a hurried cup of tea, then we drove back quickly to the Riverside Country Park to collect our bikes. We thought the Park closed at eight, and would have only just have made it – but they had changed the time to eight-thirty so we were OK. The nearest campsite was very near a motorway junction – we didn’t want to drive all the way back to the Isle of Sheppey – but they were renewing the junction and it was a terrible mess! We were really too tired to cope with getting lost and taking the wrong turning through all those roadworks, but eventually we found the site and it was sheltered and pleasant with lovely clean toilets and showers. The traffic noise was muted but not the constant police sirens which have become so much part of our everyday lives in recent years. By the time we had pitched our tent and got sorted, it was dark – and we were within a whisker of the longest day! We heated up the partially defrosted meal I had taken out of the freezer that morning, ate it and went to bed.